Nadine Williams

KI pelicans perform sky show

Who would expect one of the most spectacular wildlife experiences on Kangaroo Island to happen while sipping early-morning tea at an unlikely place – on the veranda of American River’s general store.

Amazingly, straight ahead of us four magnificent pelicans glide into view, circling and swooping over the sparkling blue waters of Eastern Cove.  They are like kites as they put on a wonderful air show, but then they seem to fall into line in a row overhead to do what could only be described as a fly-past, in perfect formation as if to say “Good morning’’.  Or perhaps it is to let us know what we might have missed for not being patient when we had strolled along Scenic Walk on our way to the store. The birds had been clustered there in the shallow waters on the foreshore patiently waiting to be fed by staff from All Seasons Kangaroo Island Lodge. A few families of guests were gathered for the feeding time scheduled for 9am each morning.  We had stopped for a few minutes, scooping up our small Maltese dog, Jackson, until five minutes after 9am before strolling on our way when no-one arrived to feed them. Read more »

64 and still kicking

It seems only yesterday that our generation  would sing parrot-like that Beatles’ hit When I’m 64 and never waste a thought on what life would be like then.
The notion that we would ever “get older losing my hair’’ as the four Liverpool lads belted out, applied only to old men.
 Yet,this is the year the baby boomers, born in 1946 reach that very age of 64. And surprisingly, life is rolling right along happily in a state that cannot be denied anymore – as  older men and women.
The horror is that the woman who stares at me from the mirror these days looks remarkably like my dear late mother.
This shocking revelation could grow even more distressing if, deep down, I didn’t still regard myself as a perpetual 30-something. I still feel like Aphrodite inside. But one must keep that Greek Goddess of beauty in our mind’s eye because just the other day I saw a very middle-aged Princess Anne and she is about to turn 60 – and younger than me! That’s a fact one cannot escape because I remember dancing in my bobby socks to welcome her mother, the Queen, on the Adelaide Oval.

So, we are no longer young, or even middle aged, because despite latest social research which reflects how people’s attitudes to the term “middle aged’’ is changing by  pushing it further back from 40,to 50, then to 60, we need to accept that  60-something is not 50-something. The big 6-0 birthday is a reality check. There is a big divide and iconic Maggie Tabberer was the first to alert me to this fact at a time when I  hadn’t even hit 50.  “It is a passage of time which changes you,’’ she had said.   Read more »

Feeling high over film option

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010.

It is  Saturday morning I rise early and I prepare my home for a Red Letter Day – the signing of the film options papers for my debut book From France With Love.  I notice the dead gladioli in a vase and whip them out into the rubbish.

“We need new flowers for today; dead flowers are a bad omen,’’ I call out to my husband, Olivier .

I drive to Amanda’s florist and buy lilies and irises and a posey of pink flowers for the table. Next door I buy a slab of Kucken from Akkerman’s bakery.  Mum would whip up kuchen and sit it on the open oven door to rise, then mix butter, flour and sugar into the crumbled topping. Its sweet yeasty aroma would fill the kitchen when she would take it piping hot out of the oven, its crunchy topping a honey gold colour. Yes, mum would be pleased with my choice.   Read more »

Bowl of cherries

My life in this Golden Age of recent retirement is such a bowl of cherries, that each day I choose some other delicious adventure or activity.  While a new fitness routine is the biggest challenge, my time is dominated by “cocooning’’ a return to hobbies and interests of my 20s and early 30s.  This evidently is a trend for baby boomer women to return to handiwork, in my case, triggered by the arrival of the first grand-daughter.  As a young woman, I was a good dressmaker and made many of my own clothes and those of my young daughters.  I have had framed  the tiny baptism gown I made from left-over bridal lace for my first baby,  Serena.  As a housewife and mother, I enjoyed cooking and entertaining and gardening, but all of these pleasurable pursuits were swept aside for the past 28 years of my professional life as a mature-age tertiary student (8 years) and newspaper journalist for the past two decades.  I sold my Necchi sewing machine years ago. Feminism replaced the familial,  and I thumbed my nose at a  woman’s homely role, a fact which irked my mother.

Retirement was justifiably a risky time after an exciting work life, but I planned to do something different each day – and adopting a much healthier lifestyle involving gym fitness two or three times a week was a vital factor.  Despite a top-flight gymnasium in-house at The Advertiser I had never used the facility more than a half a dozen times a year, so building a new lifestyle would be a challenge. I had written so many articles linking fitness and agility with longevity that now I must walk my own talk. Read more »

Jones Road

 Jones Road, a delightful route meandering between the pretty villages of Balhannah and Hahndorf may have a bland name, but it captures the essence of the picturesque Adelaide Hills.

 Lush vineyards and green pastures clothe a landscape dotted with dams, magnificent gums and grazing cattle.  Flaxen hills, beautiful in their barrenness, form a striking backdrop to the postcard-perfect scene.  

All this beauty unfolds on a leisurely day trip in the Hills to celebrate our 6^th anniversary and we are taking a road less travelled by tourists. Now we stop the car to photograph a lone ibis splashing himself in a dam as if he were taking a shower. We lean the camera upon a quaint rusty gate attached to two old worn  tree stumps and wonder if it dates back to famous Hahndorf artist, Sir Hans Heysen’s era. We notice brown cows resting among long grass under a sprawling gum and we snap again. 

Four top Adelaide Hills wineries are within cooee  of here and the attractive stone entrances to Nepenthe on the left, Shaw and Smith on the right of Jones Road beckon wine buffs. An avenue of glorious groomed conifer pines along Johnson Road  adds majesty to the scenario.  And Hahndorf Hill winery is a stone’s throw down Pain Road.

However, we drive past them on our way to The Lane Vineyard until we reach a fork where the road takes a sharp right to become Balhannah Road into Hahndorf.  We turn left along Paech Brothers Road which leads to The Lane Vineyard bistro and cellar door on Ravenswood Lane. It is a spectacular destination, sitting high on a hill overlooking a sweeping landscape of vines to the valley below where a dam sparkles in the afternoon sun.

Sommaliere, Alister Robertson is the son of a female friend and with a commanding “leave the wine selection to me’’ we settle in for an afternoon of wine tasting accompanied by tasty dishes prepared by chef James Brinkler.

“The restaurant is here to complement the wines,’’ begins Alister.

He places three wine glasses before us, pouring The Lane’s The Gathering Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, 2008, in one, and a Ravenswood Lane Chardonnay 2007 into another.  “The Gathering is stored in French barrels,’’ says Alister, adding that Wine Business Magazine awarded it 96 points. Read more »

Pampered pandas a star act

It is the cruellest of days to take the grand-children to see Adelaide Zoo’s famous  new residents – the exotic Giant Pandas.  The children have flown here from London for a holiday, the highlight being to meet Wang Wang and Funi and

Funi - photo by Bryan Charlton

they have been hyped up for months about it.   Only the bravest grandma would say “it’s too hot today’’ because tomorrow they leave.

So, here we are on Monday morning walking past the oldest Zoo residents, the magnificent flamingos, as the temperature climbs to 34 degrees – and it’s only 10.40am.  I have not visited the zoo since my own children were small, so the new, sophisticated zoo entry complex is a treat.  The children race ahead through the gloriously cool rain forest approach into a long lineup befitting a pop concert, but these performers are big fluffy balls of pampered fur – the only pandas in the southern hemisphere.

Our three little charges are boys aged eight and six and a two-year-old grand-daughter who fidgets in the pusher, and we are bombarded with questions about the pandas until, mercifully, we are ushered into the beautiful new $8 million enclosures, where even the mountain-like rocks are cooled.

It is a glorious Asian garden approach until a volunteer whispers to us that Funi is shy and we will find her hiding at the top of her salubrious accommodation, behind a pencil pine. “There she is,’’ calls Samuel, for all 50 people gathered here to hear. You would think he had discovered gold. But,  “Lucky Girl’’, which is what Funi means is right at the top of the “mountain’’ and merely peeps shyly down at us all before turning away and nuzzling into some grasses.   She is whiter than white with those big blotches of black fur to define her breed. “No, she is not a walking toy,’’ we explain to Josephine, who clings to her own fluffy “Mr Teddy’’, a slightly ragged toy wearing the ravages of world travel. Read more »